THREE men have been given five year suspended sentences and fined £1,000 each for their roles in a botched cattle fraud using forged bank drafts.
The South Armagh criminal who organised it abandoned hiss Peugeot car and £20,000 in Tullamore when he saw one of the defendants being arrested.
Insp Peter Wheeler told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that gardai recovered more forged bank drafts concealed in the car. An original bank draft for £15,000 was also recovered.
Insp Wheeler, replying to Mr Paul McDermott, prosecuting, said cattle were purchased at Ballinasloe and Tullamore livestock marts with forged bank drafts which had face values of £20,000 and £15,000.
The forgeries were made from two original bank drafts for those amounts purchased at the Bank of Ireland in Cavan and in Granard. When the cattle were bought, the criminal began to change the drafts back to cash.
That succeeded in the case of the £20,000 draft at the Cavan Bank of Ireland branch, but failed when the Granard bank did not have sufficient funds to pay out the £15,000. The fraud organiser drove one of the defendants to the Tullamore Bank of Ireland branch, but staff there became suspicious and called gardai.
Malachy Montague (51), unemployed, of Carland Road, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, pleaded guilty to four charges of forging bank drafts for £15,000 and £20,000 drawn on the Bank of Ireland in Cavan and in Granard in the name "John Smith" with intent to defraud.
Martin Murray (28), a farmer, of Crumlin Little, Dunkerrin, Birr, Co Offaly, and John Ryan (36), a farmer, of Ballinvana, Toomevara, Co Tipperary, both pleaded guilty to handling 64 cattle in December 1993 knowing them to have been stolen.